260923 PEYC Fall 5 of 5

Creation: 260924 0809 Last Modified: 260924 0809

Crew

Position	Person
Helm	Lynn Ellwood
Main	Sue Fraser
Middle 1	Steve Ellwood
Middle 2	Anik Karimjee
Mast	Joel Massicotte
Bow	Howard Whittaker

Course

“A” Special twist, Martin finally used the leeward mark as both the start line ‘pin’ and the leeward mark. Progress not perfection. So start, #3, #1, #3, finished line. Took us a little under an hour.

Weather

The forecasts have been pinned to the same numbers for days. 9 knots gusts to 18, from 40-60 degrees. We decided to run the #3 partly because if we were wrong the penalty would be to make this race be our drop and we still win the series - low risk. And partly because well 18 knots expected…

What we got was 7-14. So the #3 wasn’t the right sail and we struggled upwind in the chop - more on that later.

Nonetheless, it was a glorious evening for a sail.

Race Result

So as not to bury the lead - we won the series!

We dropped out 2nd. Nice work team.

Last night, with our #3, Bear, sailing a #1 or #2, was able to stay in front - possibly also far enough ahead to beat us on PHRF. Rebel was also going well, upwind, but not nearly enough to beat us on PHRF. More in the race review.

We did edge out Lickety on Corrected time - at last!

Race Review

The line was confusing. (Martin). The #1 fixed mark was used as a mark of the course and the ‘PIN’ for the start mark. So we rounded the #1 mark at the bottom of the leeward leg to port, as usual. But at finish we passed it to Stbd.

A downwind finish was very nice, and put us heading to the dock under spinnaker at the end of the race.

Everyone came in from the east side, RC side. Lynn and Sue ran the start, Sue had Lynn set up on a line to the RC for a shot timed run.

Rebel came over us, we called up up, and they slowly went up. That was fine. They almost rotated their transom into us.

We slowed down as they headed up because we were early. But nearly as early as Rebel. So we were happy to let them pass over us.

We got right up to the line and headed down for about 5 seconds then wound up. Good start, middle of the line, no interference.

Bear was late to the line but pegged the RC and headed off.

It was choppy on stbd. The breeze was lighter than we expected and so we had trouble powering through the waves. The boat felt slow. To keep the power on we were not sailing as high on stbd as Rebel or Bear - crazy making.

We also struggled with tacks. The little jib usually means our tacks are so fast they look like a slight of hand card trick. Not yesterday.

I was in the pit and I decided to do the jib break and trim myself - the jib is easy. But that meant that the flow of people from side to side got messed up. Anik had to figure out how to get around to the other side with Joel and Howard - it was like a queue. There were a few times Anik passed under the boom which was ok, but uncomfortable I’m sure. And other times he came behind me in the cockpit which added to congestion there.

We have to think about this. It might be that a shuffle - as we have done in the past - (because we were cross sheeting) - new trimmer moves off the rail and positions over the leeward winch. Breaker stands ready to break not leaving the rail.

Then on the tack breaker breaks comes in, trimmer trims and hands off as breaker comes across - the person handing off hits the rail. the old breaker now trimmer finishes the trim and hits the rail.

This seems smoother.

In all, the crew flow as I had configured it, prevented us from getting the boat flat on the new tack. And so yucky tacks.

Bear headed out of stbd trying to find the windward mark lay line from a mile away. There was a line of non-flying sail boats parading to the windwark mark from well out and we didn’t want to get in their long slow line and we didn’t want to have to sail above them - and reach down the mark. So we tacked (slowly) well short. We were in new wind near the shore - headed, then lifted and lighter. We had to go farther than we wanted to fetch the mark.

Bear got around before us by about 10 boats, (larger sail few manoeuvres, better pressure staying out) and we were on Rebel’s tail.

Pretty good hoist. We had a problem with the pole being stuck inside the pulpit. Perhaps the cleat for the topping lift of the pole needs to be rethought. Several times in the race I found that the line had jumped out of the cam cleats.

We got it sorted and headed off. The track was mostly stbd gybe, that was the long tack downwind. The inclination was to soak down. Lynn was, correctly monitoring our polars, but they felt too deep, sometimes dead down wind.

We did not catch Rebel or Bear during most of the run down. But we made up ground as we approached the leeward mark because they dropped their chutes early and of course without a pole I held ours up until we were able to finish the drop right as we made the turn (mostly).

Upwind on the second windward leg, we sailed a little fuller, hiked a little harder.

We still picked our way up the course but we didn’t have the parade of NFS boats ahead any more. Only Lickety was ahead of us.

We stayed out on stbd, but again frustrating because we weren’t pointing with either Rebel or Bear. We bailed and flipped to port. In retrospect I think that was a mistake. Rebel was below us and yes they were gaining on boat speed and sailing a higher angle, and Bear was in line with us but we were falling into their lee and we started to feel their disturbed air. So a mistake? Maybe there was nothing we could do except tack out rather than being the meat in the sandwich.

But I believe after a short hitch we should have flipped back. Pressure is king. I waited too long.

At the weather mark Bear and Rebel were close. We were behind but through the magic of PHRF we were ahead.

Both took off deep - really deep.

Lynn stayed high sailing polars. Sue found us a nice lane of stronger breeze in the middle west of the bay and we road it.

Even with the pressure we would not have passed either Rebel or Bear, but we win on PHRF.

Except, Bear managed to wrap her spinnaker in a nasty way around her forestay. It took forever to clear. And we sailed right around them.

Rebel did a gybe half was down the track but executed it badly. We passed them too.

When we gybed over we were sailing at a good angle, while Rebel was deep. At the finish line we crossed Rebel’s bow and got line honours.

So the mistakes made by Bear and Rebel on that last leg didn’t earn us victory, PHRF did that. But they did earn us line honours.

Lessons Learned

Tacking

Get the flow of the crew right to ensure bodies are where they need to be quickly. The Olson is very very sensitive to crew weight. Work out the dance before the party starts.

Hiking

When Ali Meller was aboard, he was the poster child for serious hiking. He even, gently, asked me why we weren’t hiking hard. He was right. We simply haven’t been straining at the lifelines to get our bodies out consistently.

We want the body at a 7-10 degree heel all the time. When its more than that the crew needs to automatically get the weight OUT. We have not been doing that.

Let’s make Ali proud!

Sail Choice

Ok, ok, my dream of an Olson with a #3 maximum jib size is a pipe dream. The boat needs big sails. So be it. I will keep re-reading this…